One-hundred and fifty years ago this May, a conflict between local policemen and African American soldiers set off three days of rioting in Memphis and resulted in the deaths of nearly 50 people — almost all African Americans. Now known as the Memphis Massacre, this event heavily influenced the path of Reconstruction and the eventual passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Over the next three months, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary, the University of Memphis and the National Park Service are partnering with several local institutions for a series of discussions, lectures, and book talks with the goal of bringing greater public awareness to this pivotal–yet largely unknown– event in our history.

The full calendar of events, more information about the Massacre, and links to resources are all available at the University of Memphis’ Memories of a Massacre website. The Memphis Public Library & Information Center will be hosting two of these events: “Great Conversations — The Memphis Massacre” with Dr. Timothy Huebner on March 22 at 5:30 pm and a Book Discussion led by Drs. Bond and O’Donovan on April 14th at 6 pm.

The Memphis and Shelby County Room houses several items relating to life in Memphis during this time period, including two illustrations of the Massacre that were originally published in Harper’s Weekly on May 26, 1866:

Today we are pleased to announce the addition of a Memphis Music Listening Station to the Memphis and Shelby County Room. This listening station, which contains 594 CDs, will allow easy patron access to our large archive of Memphis Music. This listening station contains materials representing every stage of music written and recorded by Memphians and in Memphis. From the Memphis Jug Band, to Justin Timberlake; from Memphis Minnie to Packy Axton; classical, country, jazz, soul, rockabilly, R&B and more can all be listened to and enjoyed in one spot. Additionally, many rare and out-of-print albums are included in the listening station along with local independent releases (of course, Elvis and Stax are here too!).

Feel free to browse through the Guide of available music and come by anytime to listen to some great tunes!

Today we are very excited to announce that the Memphis & Shelby County Room is the new repository for WREG Channel 3’s broadcasts of the Memphis in May Sunset Symphony. Late last year WREG graciously donated their broadcasts to the library and we have been hard at work preparing these to go up on Dig Memphis for your enjoyment. The broadcasts span a 12 year period from 1988 -2000 and include such highlights as the 20th Anniversary concert (1996), performances from Ruby Wilson (1992) and Isaac Hayes (1994), a symphonic work composed by the King of Thailand (1995) and, of course, many renditions of “Ol’ Man River” by the inimitable James Hyter (1988-1998).

We are going to be rolling out all these broadcasts over the next few weeks but today you can view both the entirety of the 1994 and 1998 broadcasts on Dig Memphis (all the broadcasts will also be available on our Vimeo channel). While every concert is a treat, we have chosen to post these two broadcasts first because of their special significance: the 1994 broadcast features a special performance from Isaac Hayes (including the “Theme from ‘Shaft'”) and the 1998 broadcast represents the end of an era with the final performances of both Maestro Alan Balter and James Hyter.

We would once again like to give a large and sincere Thank You to WREG for the donation of these videos, insuring that, although the Sunset Symphony is no longer a part of Memphis in May, music lovers the world over can watch these incredible performances whenever they desire. Enjoy!

The 1994 broadcast may be viewed by following these links: Part 1, Part 2.

While many people are familiar with the music of the famed Stax label, the story of its earliest day isn’t one that’s frequently told. In our latest podcast episode, we explore the life and music of Charles “Packy” Axton, son of Stax co-founder Estelle Axton. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the music of the Stax label would’ve been very different if not for Packy’s early involvement. If you’d like to read more about Stax and southern soul music be sure to check out Respect Yourself by Robert Gordon, Sweet Soul Music by Peter Guralnick, and Soulsville U.S.A., by Rob Bowman.

As promised in our last post, today we are publishing the Nadia Price Collection! Nadia opened her own photography studio in Memphis in 1945 and her collection documents her impressive talent.

During her career Nadia documented businesses and buildings in Memphis, simple life in the Mississippi Delta, children at camp, girl scout troops, thoroughbred horses, and portraits, just to name some of her most frequent subjects. This collection gives a unique insight into Nadia’s career and we would once again like to thank our Rhodes Fellows Maria & Sandro for their hard work processing and digitizing this collection. See the post below this for information about the Open House in their honor.

On Thursday, August 27th, the History Department will be hosting an Open House as a token of our appreciation for all the work done by our Rhodes College Fellows this summer. Maria and Sandro have done some great work processing and digitizing collections over the past few months. These collections include: the J. Porter McClean Collection, the Claypool Family Collection, the Walter R. Streuli Collection, and the Nowag Music Collection. Their most impressive work, however, was the Nadia Price collection. Nadia was a local photographer and her collection includes over 600 photographs.